October 2nd, 2011 by John Mandrola, M.D. in Opinion
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You have probably read that experience makes for better doctors.
And of course this would be true–in the obvious ways, like with the hand-eye coordination required to do complex procedures, or more importantly, with the judgment of when to do them.
There’s no news here: everyone knows you want a doctor that’s been out of training awhile, but not so long that they have become weary, close-minded or physically diminished. Just the right amount of experience please.
But there’s also potential downsides and struggles that come with experience. Tonight I would like to dwell on three ways in which experience is causing me angst.
But first, as background…
It was the very esteemed physician-turned-authors, Dr. Groopman and his wife, Dr. Hartzland, who wrote this thought-provoking WSJ essay–on how hidden influences may sway our medical decisions–that got me thinking about how I have evolved as a doctor. They were writing from the perspective of the patient. But in the exam room, there are two parties: patient and doctor.
# 1) The sobering view that experience brings: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
October 2nd, 2011 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Opinion
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Doctors have an image problem. People see us one way. Perhaps more importantly, we see ourselves one way. And it seems to start at a young age.
I had a premedical student in my office recently – A friend of a friend interested in a career as a doctor. And as I often do I like to ask the question, ‘what do you think medicine will be like when you’re done training?’ It’s something of an exercise. I usually get an answer involving some combination of hospital rounds, physical examinations, telephone calls, and busy office visits. Occasionally I’ll get rehearsed nonsense about black leather bags and house calls. The young woman in my office didn’t fail to deliver.
What does the next generation of physician know? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
October 1st, 2011 by PreparedPatient in News, Opinion
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Cigna launched a $25 million “GO YOU” national branding campaign last week signaling that they are gearing up for tons of new customers as health reform rolls towards 2014. That new business will come from the millions of Americans now uninsured who will start getting government subsidies as an encouragement to buy health insurance coverage. If those uninsured folks don’t get coverage, they will have tax penalties to pay.
No insurer wants to be left behind in this expanding marketplace, so Cigna, by being first out of the gate, hopes to build brand awareness that will ring bells in 2014 when consumers must buy insurance. It’s a smart strategy. One industry consultant says “most insurers have not built enough brand equity with consumers.”
Cigna’s ad campaign positions health insurance as Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Prepared Patient Forum: What It Takes Blog*
October 1st, 2011 by KennyLinMD in Book Reviews, Opinion
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Recently, I had a conversation with Shannon Brownlee (the widely respected science journalist and acting director of the Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation) about whether men should continue to have access to the PSA test for prostate cancer screening, despite the overwhelming evidence that it extends few, if any, lives and harms many more men than it benefits. She felt that if patients could be provided with truly unbiased information and appropriate decision aids, they should still be able to choose to have the test (and have it covered by medical insurance). Believing that one of the most important roles of doctors is to prevent patients from making bad decisions, I disagreed.
After reading Your Medical Mind, the new book by Harvard oncologist and New Yorker columnist Jerome Groopman, I think he would probably side with Brownlee’s point of view. Groopman, whose authoring credits include the 2007 bestseller How Doctors Think, and wife Pamela Hartzband, MD have written a kind of sequel to that book that could have easily been titled How Patients Think. Drawing on interviews with dozens of patients about a wide variety of medical decisions – from starting a cholesterol-lowering drug, to having knee surgery, to accepting or refusing heroic end-of-life interventions – the authors Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Common Sense Family Doctor*
October 1st, 2011 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Opinion
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We must not turn a blind eye to the shocking facts about land mines and the damage they cause to civilians and our own troops. The fact that modern warfare involves buried explosives that are completely untargeted should shock the conscience of the world. The number of severe wounds that affect our servicemen is on the rise and the Army’s Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany is filled with casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan.
There have been 79 cases of multiple amputations this year for our U.S. soldiers…more than any previous year and through July, 134 servicemen and women lost limbs. The year is only 1/2 over!
Doctors treating the troops said there is often damage to lungs, kidneys and livers from massive blood loss and shock. Infection is rampant and 90 soldiers lost Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
